


Plants: #31

by Ignisentis



Series: 32 Ways To Say I Love You [31]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, The Universal Cat Owner's Dilemma, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, lots of plants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22702357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignisentis/pseuds/Ignisentis
Summary: Alpine starts getting into Bucky's treasured plant collection, so he and Steve come up with some solutions.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: 32 Ways To Say I Love You [31]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602352
Comments: 29
Kudos: 136





	Plants: #31

**Author's Note:**

> It's the penultimate fic! Tomorrow is the last day, can you believe it?!?!?!?

“Ugh, Alpine, no!” Steve hears Bucky shout from another room. 

“Everything okay?” he calls out.

“UGH!” Bucky reiterates.

Steve chuckles at his dramatics, putting his book down to go see what’s wrong. He finds Bucky in the spare room they turned into a library, complete with tons of built-in bookshelves and a massive reading nook. One wall has a bunch of tall windows and gets tons of afternoon sun, so Bucky’s got a giant collection of plants in here. 

A collection of plants that’s down by two, considering their pots have been knocked over and strewn about the floor, little cat paw prints in the spilled dirt. 

“Close the door! Don’t let Alpine out!” Bucky shouts when he sees Steve. Alpine tries to make a break for it from where he’s nestled in Bucky’s arms, but Steve is quicker and gets the door shut before the cat can get out.

“What happened?” Steve asks. 

“Alpine got into my plants, knocked two over, nibbled on some more. Some of these are toxic to cats, did you know that? I sure didn’t. I’m gonna have to get rid of all these plants, or move them somewhere.”

“Why don’t you just keep the door closed and not let Alpine in?” Steve asks.

Bucky looks at Steve like he’s suddenly grown three heads. “Not let Alpine in? Are you joking?”

“Uh…”

“He comes and snuggles up with me while I’m reading in here, there’s no way I’m keeping him out.”

“Okay, then we can move the plants.”

“Ugh, but I like how the plants make the room feel! I don’t want to move them to some room where I’ll never see them!” Bucky whines, and Steve can’t help but smile at him.

“Then we can...look for alternate ways to keep the plants in here but make them inaccessible to Alpine?”

Bucky perks up at that suggestion. “Yeah, that one. Let’s do that one, Steve.”

Steve takes a look around the room, eyebrow raised, before settling on Alpine, who must have rolled around in the dirt after he knocked the plants over because he is absolutely filthy. Bucky looks down at the cat in his arms.

“Okay, bath for Alpine first, then cleaning up this mess,  _ then _ hanging plants.”

Steve sighs as he nods. “I’ll get the vacuum.”

An hour, and one wet, angry cat later, Steve and Bucky are huddled together at the kitchen table, looking at hanging planter ideas online.

“I think I like this one the best,” Bucky says, pointing at one of the pictures they’re going through. 

“Yeah?” Steve says, clicking on the picture to find a link to the website.

“Yeah.”

It turns out to be a hanging shelf of sorts, made from a wooden disc the blogger bought from The Home Depot and a bunch of yarn tied together strategically to make the hanger part. Steve angles the laptop toward Bucky so he can more easily read the article. 

“Look, we can do this ourselves,” Bucky says excitedly. “And we can use some of your yarn, too, if you have some to spare. I’d like that, actually. Part of you would be in here that way.”

“Aw, Buck,” Steve says before bumping his shoulder into Bucky’s. “We can look through my yarn, see what I have. I’d like that, too.”

“Okay. Can we go to the store and get some of these wooden discs first?”

“We should probably measure the space and see how many you want first, don’t you think?”

“Oh. Yeah, probably. Good idea.”

Bucky gets up and goes to their storage closet, rummaging around for a tape measure.

~~~

Once all the supplies are together, it’s surprisingly easy to make and hang the shelf things, as Steve’s calling them in his head. Bucky’s so happy when they’re done, and he spends an hour arranging and rearranging his potted plants on the shelves. Steve curls up in the book nook and just watches him work. He loves watching Bucky be passionate about something, and the way he keeps muttering to himself and his plants about light and angles is so incredibly endearing.

Eventually Bucky decides what he needs are more plants, so he goes online and starts looking up cute pots. The boxes start arriving a couple of days later, and Steve leaves him to his organizing.

Once all the pots are in their proper places, Bucky asks Steve to come to a plant nursery with him and pick out plants for all the new pots, but really Steve thinks Bucky only asked so Steve could help carry things around the store. Which he’s happy to do. He just...has no good opinions on the plants Bucky keeps asking him about, if the neutral “hmms” are any indication.

In the end, Bucky finds what he wants, and Steve dutifully helps carry all the bags home, thankful that New Yorkers could give two shits about two jacked guys carrying a bunch of plants and potting soil.

“Steve,” Bucky says, once all the plants are potted and organized to Bucky’s satisfaction. “It’s perfect.”

Steve leans over and kisses Bucky’s temple. “It looks great, baby.” And it does. Bucky was right to want to keep the plants in the room. Still, the floor under the windows looks a little bare, now. The windows reach almost to the floor, so now there’s all this open space where the plant stands and tall pots used to be.

“Thanks for all your help,” Bucky says, kissing Steve on the cheek.

“You’re welcome.”

~~~

Two weeks later, and Steve is still thinking about the empty floor space in the library. Bucky hasn’t filled it with anything yet, and Steve’s not sure if he’s waiting for inspiration to strike or what, but...well, Bucky loves the plants in that room so much. Why not figure out an Alpine-friendly way to get more in there?

Steve goes back online, and after some Googling and some dead ends, he stumbles across a beautiful DIY terrarium table. The wood is light, which matches the wood of Bucky’s hanging plant shelves. There’s a wooden frame and wooden legs, but the rest is made of glass like a large fish tank or something. The inside is filled with soil and plants, little toy cars and dinosaurs creating a whimsical feature amongst the greenery.

It’s  _ perfect. _

Steve prints out the instructions and also has Jarvis save the website before he heads out of the apartment to find Tony in his lab.

“Do you think you could help me make this?” Steve asks breathlessly when he gets to the lab, holding up the stack of paper with the terrarium table instructions in Tony’s face. Tony grabs the papers and takes a step back, looking at Steve like he’s finally lost it.

“Oh, hey, Bruce,” Steve says while Tony reads. Bruce is standing on the opposite side of the lab table from Tony, a smirk on his face. “Didn’t see you there.”

“That’s all right,” Bruce replies. He tips his chin up in Tony’s direction. “What do you have there?”

“Instructions for how to build a terrarium coffee table for Bucky.”

Bruce perks up. “Oh, really? That sounds neat.”

“It actually is,” Tony says, sounding surprised. “Huh. Good news is I can easily build this. Better news is I can build something even better, if you want.” Tony hands the plans to Bruce when the other man makes grabby hands for them.

“I want in,” Bruce says after going through the papers.

“Uh, okay, if you two —”

“Steve, come back in...an hour?” Tony says, looking to Bruce, who nods. “An hour. We’ll have schematics for you then.”

“O-okay,” Steve says, frowning. “I was kind of hoping to also help make it considering it is for my boyfriend.”

Bruce and Tony exchange glances. “Right. Okay, then pull up a chair,” Tony says with a shrug.

~~~

Bruce and Tony do come up with a better plan, with a little input on design and materials from Steve, and within two days, the table is done. It’s gorgeous, longer and taller than the original, but the library is longer and has higher ceilings, so it’s much better-suited for their apartment. The wood is rich and inviting, and the top hinges up for easier watering. 

Bucky’s going to  _ love _ it.

“Bruce, Tony, this is incredible, Bucky’s going to lose his mind. I can’t thank you enough,” Steve tells the other two men when the table is done.

“Are you kidding? This was a blast. I’m making one for my own floor next. Bruce, you want one?”

“Actually, yeah, I do. Thanks for the idea, Steve,” Bruce says.

“No problem. Can we keep it here in the lab until Bucky’s out of the apartment? I’ll come get it and bring it to our floor then.”

Tony just flaps his hand at Steve. “Yep, that’s fine. Bruce, you ready to start the next one?” Tony says, turning to Bruce. Steve takes that as his cue to leave and does just that.

~~~

Bucky doesn’t leave the apartment until two days later. Steve sighs in relief when he sees his table just where he left it and completely intact. He was a little worried about some sort of lab accident damaging it, but it’s just as incredible as when they first finished it. Steve picks it up, and it’s more cumbersome than it is heavy, but he manages to get it back to their floor and into the library without any trouble.

He’s practically vibrating out of his skin by the time Bucky gets home with a box from their favorite bakery a few blocks away.

“Steve, I brought you some —”

“Later, I have a present for you!” Steve interrupts, pulling the baked goods out of Bucky’s hands. “Come see!” he chirps. 

“Ooookay,” Bucky chuckles, taking off his coat and shoes before following Steve. They detour to the kitchen to put the bakery box down, and Steve can hear Bucky laughing at how he’s practically bouncing down the hallway to the library.

“Close your eyes,” Steve says when they get to the door. Bucky snorts but does, letting Steve lead him through the door and over to the table where Steve’s placed it on the floor in front of the window.

“Okay,” Steve says when Bucky is in position. “Open them.”

Bucky opens his eyes and...frowns at the table. “What...is that?”

“It’s a terrarium table! You can add plants, and the sun will come in the window, and Alpine can’t get to them!” Steve pulls out the picture of the finished table from the original instructions to show Bucky what he means. “Tony and Bruce helped, so of course they changed the design, but this is what we based it on.”

Bucky gasps when he sees the picture before looking back at his own table with new eyes. “Steve,” he whispers. “This is  _ incredible! _ Holy shit, this is for me?!?”

“Yeah, honey, it is,” Steve says fondly.

Bucky goes over to the table. He traces his fingers along the wood, touches the glass. Steve shows him how the top hinges open for watering. 

“Wow,” Bucky breathes. “Did you help make this?”

“Mm-hmm, I did. That’s why it’s made of wood and matches your plant hangers instead of being some sort of fancy metal.”

Bucky leans in and kisses Steve soundly. “Thank you,” he says, pulling back. “It’s perfect. I love it.”

“You’re welcome, sweetheart.”

“You know what this means, don’t you?” Bucky says, rubbing his hands together gleefully.

“Um…”

“Time for another trip to the plant nursery!!!”

“Ah. Yes, that...is what it means,” Steve deadpans.

Bucky laughs and throws his arms around Steve so he can kiss him breathless.

  
  



End file.
